08ASTANA1072, KAZAKHSTAN: ALMATY NOTES, MAY 27 – JUNE 6, 2008

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UNCLAS ASTANA 001072
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOVPHUMPRELKZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: ALMATY NOTES, MAY 27 - JUNE 6, 2008
¶1. The "Almaty Notes" series is intended to maintain focus on
developments in civil society, the media, and the opposition in
Kazakhstan's "southern capital" following the move of the Embassy to
Astana.
Hunger Strike Against Property Seizures
---------------------------------------
¶2. On June 2, eleven Almaty residents who had been on a hunger
strike for two weeks held a press briefing for journalists. The
residents are protesting an attempt to demolish their houses and
seize their land. They allege that the Almaty municipal
administration and a local court are biased in favor of a private
construction company, City Service Invest Stroy (CSIS), which plans
to build commercial buildings on a valuable 7.3 hectare land plot
after evicting 264 local residents. The majority of the residents
refused to accept the meager compensation they were offered in
return. Every time the residents have tried to arrange protests
against the seizure, their actions have been disrupted by law
enforcement agencies. Some of the residents allege that President
Nazarbayev's nephew, Kayrat Satypaldy, has a financial interest in
CSIS, which is the reason the municipal administration, courts, and
law enforcement agencies have supported the company.
¶3. A group of opposition activists, including Petr Svoik and
Marzhan Aspandiyarova from the Azat party, Amirbek Togusov from the
National Social Democratic Party (OSDP), and Aynur Kurmanov from the
Socialist Resistance movement, attended the press briefing and
called on the residents to continue their protest actions. Svoik
seconded the residents' claim that someone very influential must be
behind the construction company. He said that the residents have
created a precedent by standing up for their rights, and the
authorities now fear that other people will do the same thing. This
was the reason that the authorities have pushed back so hard. The
residents reassured the oppositionists that they would continue
their fight. They also plan to address a complaint to the OSCE's
Almaty office. A police officer observed the press conference, but
did not interfere.
Rally in Support of Self-Styled Activist
----------------------------------------
¶4. On May 31, the day of commemoration for the victims of Stalinist
repression, opposition activists organized a rally in Almaty in
support of Nurlan Alimbekov. Alimbekov, a self-styled human rights
activist, was detained in August 2007 in Shymkent on charges of
inciting inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatred through
disseminating offensive emails. He is currently being held in the
Almaty pre-trial detention center awaiting his third psychiatric
evaluation. Participants in the sanctioned rally included relatives
and friends of Alimbekov, as well as representatives of the leading
opposition parties -- Azat, OSDP, and the Communist Party. One
protestor, Takhirzhan Akmetov, threatened to cut off his own finger
and send it to President Nazarbayev if Alimbekov is not released.
He was subsequently called in by the police for questioning.
¶5. Nurlan Alimbekov, born in 1964, is a graduate of Yekaterinburg
State University. He worked for the Ministry of Information and
later was a researcher at the Academy of Sciences and a lecturer at
several universities in South Kazakhstan oblast. Before his arrest
last year, Alimbekov, who purportedly published some articles in the
opposition press, was unknown to the wider public. He has
maintained his innocence and claims the case against him was
fabricated.
Attempt to Seize Property of Agafe Church
-----------------------------------------
¶6. Local authorities in the Karasay district of Almaty oblast are
reportedly trying to seize the Agafe Evangelical Christian Church's
land and building. A district prosecutor has filed a motion asking
a local court to rule that the transfer of this property to the
church was illegal. In 1997, a local official authorized the
transfer of both the land and the building, which had previously
been used for cultural events, to the Agafe church for free.
According to a church representative, the church parish and
missionaries from South Korea repaired the building. Some
unidentified individuals now want to seize this lucrative property,
including the two-story building and 1309 square-meter land plot,
the church representative claimed. The district prosecutor alleges
that the transfer was an illegal, unauthorized privatization.
Opposition Journalist Bapi Accused of Slander
---------------------------------------------
¶7. A driver of one of the cars which reportedly surveilled
opposition journalist Yermurat Bapi has filed a lawsuit against Bapi
accusing him of slander, Bapi told Inkar internet radio in a June 5
interview. Bapi previously provided the license plate numbers of
the cars to the Almaty office of the National Security Committee
(KNB), and the KNB responded claiming they had identified th
e
drivers. Bapi suggested that the KNB made the driver file the
lawsuit.
Incident Involving Uzbek Refugees
---------------------------------
¶8. On May 29, the Almaty police detained three Uzbek refugees,
Zhobir Aslonov, Yelmurat Khamzayev, and Khamid Makhmudov, while they
were leaving the UNHCR office in Almaty. Six police officers in
civilian clothes handcuffed the refugees, put them in a car, and
took them to a police station. Two other refugees managed to flee
the scene.
¶9. The detained refugees allege that they were questioned by the
police and KNB officers in a rude manner and were threatened with
deportation. According to refugee Yelmurat Khamzayev, when he
produced a refugee certificate issued by the UNHCR office, one of
the officers told him: "You can use it as toilet paper as it has no
value." Khamzayev was ultimately allowed to call his wife and
managed to tell her about the detention. An hour later, a UNHCR
representative and Denis Dzhivaga from the Human Rights Bureau NGO
arrived at the police station. The refugees were released shortly
thereafter on instructions from the prosecutor's office.
ORDWAY

The information recorded on this site has been extracted from http://Wikileaks.org (Kazakhstan) database..

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